The government’s budget, based on an assumed inflation rate of 2.8 percent, is untenable, a lawmaker of the opposition Párbeszéd party said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference in Budapest, Sándor Burány noted that the National Bank of Hungary forecasts an inflation rate of 3.8 percent for 2020. Last December, inflation reached four percent, a seven-year high, he added.
Burány warned that the immediate cost of living has grown by an even larger margin. The price of the basic food basket has grown by five percent on average. The price of pork has grown by nearly 24 percent, sugar by ten percent, and seasonal fruits and vegetables by 9 percent, he said.
Meanwhile, the minimum pension and certain family allowances have not been raised for ten years, he said. Burány insisted that the government “underestimates” inflation deliberately as a way of keeping a lid on transfers to pensioners.
Burány said the highest number of people should benefit from decent living standards rather than a chosen few enjoying the highest standard of living.
In the featured phoot: MP Sándor Burány. Photo by Tamás Kovács/MTI